1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for surveying a substance and a program and recording medium therefor suitable for surveying a chemical substance in each part in a product.
2. Background of the Invention
There is a strong worldwide movement under way to regulate the use of chemical substances in an industrial product when the industrial product is manufactured and marketed, typified by the Restriction of the Use of certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) Directive in the European Union (EU) market. For example, a set manufacturer (e.g., automaker or electrical equipment maker), which assembles parts into products, conducts a survey on whether a used substance is legal by requesting a response regarding a chemical substance in each part from a parts manufacturer that produces each part. In responding to a request of survey about a chemical substance in a part, each parts manufacturer makes the response by, typically, writing information regarding the substance in a predetermined data file used for the response (e.g., data file in a file format used for a spreadsheet application or word processing application) and sending the data file to a person in charge in the set manufacturer (or alternatively, by faxing a document or the like). As a related art, a technique for managing environmental load information is disclosed in Patent Document 1. The technique collects environmental load information on parts and materials in a product from suppliers over a network, accumulates data of the collected information, and allows design of the product and preparation of various documents by using the accumulated environmental load information.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-230091
When the person in charge in a set manufacturer receives the response to the request about the chemical substance in each part through the above-described processing, he or she enters the classification and the content of the chemical substance for each part into a database or the like and manages the information. However, the current processing is very inefficient, and, if the number of parts in a product is large, the number of man-hours needed to finish the processing is significantly large.
In many cases, a parts manufacturer supplies the same part to different set manufacturers. In the case where the parts manufacturer performs a response about the same part on each of the different set manufacturers, the part manufacturer is required to repeatedly make the same survey response for each set manufacturer that is a supply destination. Additionally, if the formats of documents of the responses vary from one set manufacturer to another, a problem arises in which a great deal of time and effort is required because the parts manufacturer must make a response having a survey result whose details vary with set manufacturers.
Furthermore, since a problem in which information on a chemical substance used in a product is required to be efficiently obtained and the information is required to be disclosed is common to all set manufacturers, it is preferable that a common platform exist.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for surveying a substance and a program and recording medium therefor that allow processing for retrieving information on a chemical substance in each part in a product to be efficiently performed in both a set manufacturer and parts manufacturer and that can reduce time and effort required to finish the processing.